Kaizen Primary School

Intent

“In Religious Education (RE), pupils enter into a rich discourse about the religious and non-religious traditions that have shaped Great Britain and the world. RE in primary schools enables pupils to take their place within a diverse multi-religious and multi-secular society. At its best, it is intellectually challenging and personally enriching. It affords pupils both the opportunity to see the religion and non-religion in the world, and the opportunity to make sense of their own place in that world.” 

At Kaizen Primary School, we follow the Newham Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education in accordance with Newham’s Standing Advisory Council of Religious Education’ (SACRE). 

We aim for the children to appreciate and celebrate the co-existence, acceptance and tolerance of all faiths at our schools as well as our local, national and global communities; developing the children’s open-mindedness and understanding of other cultures and religions. It’s encouraged for children to use this subject to further develop their worldviews alongside their critical thinking through the exploration of the world’s main six religions teachings and beliefs; encouraging thought-provoking questions and answers supported by the main six religious views, allowing healthy debates on the unit’s question - providing clarity on how religion and worldviews relates to the children’s own morals and values. 

Their experience of the subject will contribute dynamically to children and young people’s education in schools by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. This is explored in a supportive environment through P4C (class discussions) where the children’s contribution is explored through conversation and related back to the unit’s overall question. Children learn through this style of teaching how to value and listen to other’s differing opinions respectfully and express their insights clearer too. 

Implementation

High quality learning experiences in RE are designed and provided by careful planning of the Curriculum, taking into account the need to offer breadth of content, depth of learning and coherence between concepts, skills and content.

RE subject matter gives particular opportunities to promote an ethos of respect for others, challenge stereotypes and build understanding of other cultures and beliefs. This contributes to promoting a positive and inclusive school ethos that champions democratic values and human rights. In short, RE is an essential aspect of our work to promote community cohesion and preparing pupils for life in Modern Britain. For the purposes of the return to school post lockdown, we have endeavoured to be as inclusive as possible by aiming to offer a baseline of understanding for as many of our community’s cultures and beliefs as possible for each year group.

Our current teaching model ensures that any missed opportunities are addressed before teaching new concepts and topics. This pre teaching approach ensures that children are able to access the new learning and build upon their knowledge and skills. 

Aspects of the RE are embedded in learning within the provision of SEND learning to ensure that all children have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. Themes are planned throughout the year that allow for RE skills and knowledge to be embedded and built upon. Children with high levels of need have a broad curriculum offer, linking into National Curriculum themes, but with scaffolded learning which meets their needs, ensuring they are also making good progress from their initial starting points.

To ensure full curriculum coverage we have put in place the following measures:

●     A unit of Religious Education is taught once each term

●     The curriculum explores religion and world views through the lens of the six main world religions: Christianity; Judaism: Hinduism; Islam: Sikhism and Buddhism

●     Each of our termly themes is focussed in on enquiry questions; thus allowing children to both learn about religion and reflect on what they are learning from religion; and apply lessons from all faiths to their lives

●     Religious festivals are celebrated throughout the school through whole school assemblies such as Christmas, Eid, Easter, Guru Nanak's Birthday etc. to ensure everyone informed regardless of the unit covered at the time 

Progress

●     We have ensured knowledge progression by using Newham SACRE resources to help build our progression map and ensure pitch and progression is appropriate for each year group. 

●     We have mapped the knowledge for each unit across a year group and through the key stages to ensure progression knowledge is covered.

●     We have also mapped skills across the key stages to ensure our units allow children to develop skills and acquire new skills relevant to their learning in RE.

Impact

RE helps build resilience to anti-democratic or extremist narratives. It enables pupils to build their sense of identity and belonging, which helps them flourish within their communities and as citizens in a diverse society due to their Spiritual, Moral, Social and Culture (SMSC) development - which is also developed in RSHE - to make them overall a better version of themselves. RE teaches pupils to develop respect for others, including people with different faiths and beliefs, and helps to challenge prejudice. It prompts pupils to consider their responsibilities to themselves and to others, and to explore how they might contribute to their communities and to wider society.

Personal development and well-being

RE plays an important role in preparing pupils for adult life, employment and lifelong learning. It helps children and young people become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens. It gives them the knowledge, skills and understanding to discern and value truth and goodness, strengthening their capacity for making moral judgements and for evaluating different types of commitment to make positive and healthy choices. RE teaches children to reflect on their own circumstances, beliefs and actions. Time is given for children to reflect and to form critical responses on their learning about identity, diversity, meaning and value, including ethical issues.

Please click here to see the subject overview for RE